Editorial > Editorial Archive

Buenos Aires, Sunday, July 2, 2006

Father Oscar Pezzarini

Let's value the present

One of the hardest things to human beings is knowing how to value and live the present, not always being “enslaved” by our past nor being worried or “frozen” by the future. Many people live tied up to the past, maybe because they suffered some failure without knowing how to overcome it and try something new again, yearning for something which they didn't get or even something they lost, people who are not able to live this past “without bitterness”. There is only the present, the past has passed by and the future hasn't yet arrived, so living “today” the “present” is what gives us happiness, what makes us feel “alive”, therefore there is no other way to happiness than being happy today, to feel alive by living this day.

One of the hardest things to human beings is knowing how to value and live the present, not always being “enslaved” by our past nor being worried or “frozen” by the future.

I think that many times “living” in the past or just being “worried” by the future is just a matter of “getting away” from what we got, or of justifying those things we don't do, or of our lack of commitment with the reality we live.

Many people live tied up to the past, maybe because they suffered some failure without knowing how to overcome it and try something new again, yearning for something which they didn't get or even something they lost, people who are not able to live this past “without bitterness”.

This may also happen from a spiritual point of view for those who see God as someone “resentful”, who “forgives--- but”, who don't manage to overcome their own faults even when they know God has forgiven them and who live “tortured” by these situations and who don't know how to “forgive themselves” when God already has forgiven them and even forgot their sin. They are paralized as they live in this situation, and of all positive things they can perform, nothing will soothe them, so they will remain “with their souls in a in a state of permanent bitterness”.

Even others remember the past in a “nostalgical” way which may be the outcome of their not being satisfied by anything present, that's when talk about “all past things were better” starts, and perhaps this attitude is just a lack of fortitude as they face current situations or try to get over life's handicaps.

It is true we often must take the past into account, but only in order to be able to look forward so we can see what should be improved according to our experience, building on the past.

There are also those who live “terrified” by the future, and we know fear makes things come to a standstill and halts full development.

Then there are those who “postpone” everything in life and who are always waiting “for things to come” in order to realize they can live a happy life “enjoying” what they get today, always thinking the best is yet to come, and maybe it really is so, but they don't realize that today they already have many reasons to feel elated.

There is only the present, the past has passed by and the future hasn't yet arrived, so living “today” the “present” is what gives us happiness, what makes us feel “alive”, therefore there is no other way to happiness than being happy today, to feel alive by living this day.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
Provincial Superior of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Mexico

Father Oscar Pezzarini together with Fr. Leonardo Abregú makes us reflect on Saturdays from 8 to 12 AM (GMT-03:00)with "VENTANA A LA VIDA", the Don Orione radio program he conducts on FM PROVIDENCIA, 90.3 MHz together with some residents of the Claypole Cottolengo (Raúl Romero, María Laura Andrada, Alberto Zoroch, Américo Torres), with the production of Roberto Beluzzo and Ignacio Cavalli as technical operator. You can also listen to FM PROVIDENCIA by clicking here.

Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina, or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

Return to Editorial Archive.